Examining Turkey Husbandry in the Northern Southwest Using Legacy Museum Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper, I examine some of the details of turkey husbandry by analyzing avian remains and associated material culture, including feathers and cordage. The North American turkey (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) has had a significant and enduring presence in many of the ancient communities of North and Central America. In the literature of the American Southwest, turkeys are often relegated to subsistence categories without a great deal of contextual evidence. These assumptions have had a lasting influence on the understanding of turkeys in the ancient past. Although turkeys were present throughout the Puebloan occupation of the northern Southwest, they were not consistently utilized as food, except during periods of significant social change. Legacy materials housed in museum collections provide insight into turkey keeping methods and how they transformed as a result of environmental and cultural dynamics. Drawing from a sample of sites on the Colorado Plateau, I examine factors influencing the preservation of turkey remains and illustrate how these details may help guide our understandings to a more context-based discussion about subsistence and husbandry.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25256